I have not participated in a read-a-thon in a very long time, but I am super excited to get back into the book bloggers universe and get a ton of reading done! I’ve got a fat stack of books ready, a few good trade paperback comics, and a charged up e-reader I am ready to roll!

Later today I’m going to break to head to the game store to play some spy-themed board games with other nerdy girls (yes that’s the name of the meet-up group). I also have a lot of running to do today which is unfortunate but necessary. But I will be back to read some more after that!

For my fellow read-a-thoners, some previous read-a-thon goodies!

• Instrumental Reading Music Stations
• Free Short Stories Available Online
• October Read-a-Thon Buttons
• April Read-a-Thon Buttons

Now to start reading!

I’m up with a cup of tea and ready to get started!

Opening Meme

St Louis, Missouri

I’m excited about finishing several books, actually! I am just about done with my romp through Austen canon and am looking to polish off the final chapters of Persuasion today.

Honestly? I’m looking forward to all of the cups of tea the most, ask me later after I’m more awake!

I’m a nerd and I just realized I have now been blogging in one form or another for nearly 18 years this spring.

I have a lot more distractions this time around, I have running that needs done, vet appointments, and so on so I’m not sure I will get much reading done until night fall and by then will be quite tired! Ah well its the spirit of the challenge that is exciting, not its execution which this time around will be debatable!

I finished my first book of the read-a-thon, the trade-paperback for Princess Leia following her adventures after the end of Episode VI reuniting the scattered survivors of Alderaan. It was an excellent story, and a great start to the read-a-thon!

Our Bookish Childhoods

For this challenge we are listing our five best memories from reading growing up!

I remember toting around my little suitcase built to hold those bright red cassette tapes. The side pockets would hold the matching books and I would have my little tape player I would use to listen to my favorite books while following along with my finger under each word. I would listen to those books over and over for hours on end.

I graduated to the Babysitters Club and American Girl books. I remember at one point for fun I would read a set in a round. The first chapter of each and then the second chapter of each and then the third chapter of each…

I remember diving into classics next with Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Jane Eyre and Sherlock Holmes. I remember reading one Sherlock mystery everyday on the bus ride to and from school.

I wandered into adult books around 9 or 10 and re-told fairy tales by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow became my jam. Loved reading those and probably read a few books that were a little too much of an adult nature, but no one seemed to notice so I kept on reading!

There were several books I shared with my younger brothers or read with and too them and Goosebumps was a set of books we all enjoyed! It was great to have a story to share in with others. Not to mention a story that would also completely creep us out!

I managed to finish up some adulting and made good progress on reading Persuasion, only four chapters left to go!

Five Word Story

Next challenge is to make a five word story using words on the spines of our books. My story is: Secret Courage… Last the Night-Time!

Secret courage… last the night-time #readathon #readathonstory

A photo posted by @exlibrisbitsy on Apr 23, 2016 at 8:13am PDT

Managed to finish the last short story in Stars Above so that’s my second finished book for this read-a-thon!

Road Trip Challenge

Currently just finished up Stars Above a collection of short stories based in the Lunar Chronicles universe. Would definitely be jamming out to “Love is With Me Now” no matter which lead girl I was rolling with. All the feels!

Finished reading my third book of the read-a-thon Paper Girls and absolutely loved it! Can’t wait for volume 2 to come out!

Operation: Quotation!

I chose a quote from The Heroine’s Bookshelf.

Readblock

I’ll be honest. The number one thing that stops me from reading is depression.

I have read two more chapters of Persuasion and have slowed down a bit as family comes first!

Share a Quote

I have picked a quote from Persuasion as I am coming up on the final chapter!

Having finished only three books I think I am going to end the read-a-thon. I had an awesome game night with the nerdy girls and am looking forward to going out letter boxing with other nerdy girls tomorrow afternoon. I also had a ton of fun reading today and feel like I got a lot accomplished. Thanks for cheering me on, and enjoy the night!

I am super excited about getting to do another read-a-thon! I have big plans today that unfortunately involve a lot of homework as well as a lot of reading. Though one of the homework assignments is going to involve logging into an MMO and herding chickens (yes, really!). So that will make the day both fun and bizarre!

My reading list involves making good progress with the manga my brothers want me to read, One Piece, and getting started on the sequel to The Maze Runner the lovely Scorch Trials (I’m sure the story isn’t lovely, but the cover art is!). Hopefully will make some progress with reading related homework as well with The Fellowship of the Ring and a bit of The Faerie Queene.

For my fellow read-a-thoners, some previous read-a-thon goodies!

• Instrumental Reading Music Stations
• Free Short Stories Available Online
• October Read-a-Thon Buttons
• April Read-a-Thon Buttons

Now to start reading!

Awake, check! Cup of tea, check! Stack of mangas, check! Let’s get a few books under our belt, shall we?

Introductory Meme

I’m in St Louis, Missouri the gateway to the west.

Really looking forward to finishing The Scorch Trials but think I will save that for later when I’m getting tired and need something really fast paced to keep me up.

Apple dumplings! Went to an orchard for our apple picking and have made apple butter and hard apple cider, just need to use up the last few for some delicious dumplings and fall will truly be here!

While I love fall colors, and love sweaters and hot drinks and everything else that goes along with fall, I really don’t like it because I hate being cold. I go over the top with decorating the house for fall, getting out all my fall sweaters and boots and scarves to bundle up in, and even hitting every fall activity (like picking apples!) as if it’s going out of style because it’s a bit like ripping off a band aid. Summer is over. Stop wearing comfy flip flops and shorts. No more warm weather for a long, long time.

Well it’s the first time I’m going to take a break in the middle of the day to escort several of my classmates/gamer friends from the Shire to Rivendell as highly edible and tasty chickens. It’s also the first time I’ve ever had homework to do on a read-a-thon day period! Should be interesting to juggle that.

Finished my first book of the read-a-thon One Piece Volume 3 and am now ready to dive into the next!

Book Tunes Mini Challenge

I am reading the manga One Piece and my music recommendation would be the pandora reading music station I have been listening to, Fantasy/Adventure Reading Music. I love it!

Finished my second book of the read-a-thon One Piece Volume 4. I am really enjoying this series, it’s a fun story!

Book Spine Poetry Mini Challenge

Pied Piper / The Faerie Path / The Lovely Bones / Runaway

Uploaded my pic here.

Just finished the chicken run for my homework assignment and am now back to reading. Going to start off my afternoon read-a-thon with The Faerie Queen poem. Looking forward to it!

The time is just flying by! I finished the first Canto of Book Three of The Faerie Queene (all 600 lines!) and even finished up a lecture for the class. I think I’m going to dedicate the next hour or two to finishing out the lectures and taking the test for this week before rewarding myself with more reading. We will see how it goes!

I just finished my third read-a-thon book One Piece Volume 5. I think I will read a few more before switching to The Scorch Trials.

Finished my fourth book, One Piece Volume 6!

Mid-Event Survey

Had a bit of a lull when finishing up my third book but am now going strong and have just finished my fourth!

One Piece volumes 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Been enjoying all of them, but things got really interesting in volume 6!

Delicious tea has been doing more for me than snacks during this read-a-thon!

My cheerleader Kristilyn at Reading in Winter has an absolutely gorgeous blog (I am in love with that header!) so I am bookmarking and planning to make my way back after the read-a-thon.

Best Of Your Reading Year

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by James Joseph Adams

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Only a little ways into read-a-thon book five, but I did read a chapter or two of a non-fiction book and watched a few more lectures so I got that going for me. Hoping for that second wind to come back!

Cheap Thrills

Available for $0.99 from: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords

I managed to finish my fifth book and read a few chapters into the next but then I conked out. Still have two lectures to go as well! Ah well, it was a really fun read-a-thon and I feel like I got a lot accomplished!

Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

The last one, Hour 17 when I knew I was going down for the count!

Highly recommend The Maze Runner trilogy!

It was an amazing read-a-thon this year! So awesome!

I loved all of the new challenges, involving the book tube community, and the amazing read-a-thon presence on twitter.

Five!

One Piece, Volumes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Also read a full Canto of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene!

The One Piece manga gets more interesting the more you read it.

I would say The Faerie Queene but to be honest I really got into it after a few stanzas. Hearing an excellent audio of it on LibriVox while I was reading along helped with some of the more archaic spelling.

Very likely to participate! It was a lot of fun and I always feel bummed when I miss out. I think the days of me staying up the full 24 hours though are long over.

Putting this up a little early because I’m leaving for a road trip and plan to start this thing on the road! It’s time for the High Summer Read-a-Thon hosted by Michelle at The True Book Addict. It runs from July 22nd through the 28th and it’s a whole week dedicated to reading.

My major goals are to get caught up with the manga Battle Angel Alita: Last Order and of course keep my promise to my brothers and finally dive into One Piece. I will quite possibly treat myself to a Georgette Heyer IF I manage to finish the rest of The Maze Runner trilogy first! Finally on the non-fiction front I hope to once and for all finish chewing over Quiet: The Power of Intorverts. It’s a pretty ambitious list even for one week, we’ll have to see how far I get.

I’m also sharing a few read-a-thon resources from past read-a-thons:

• Reading Music Stations
• Free Short Stories
• Printable Book Marks
• Bookish Websites
• Awesome Book Lists

If you like the look of my High Summer Read-a-Thon graphic feel free to borrow for yourself, I won’t mind. Does anyone have any Heyer’s they would like to recommend?

I have not blogged at all in the months since the last read-a-thon. I also have barely read anything since January. I have managed to finish exactly one book in four months.

This read-a-thon I want to get re-energized about reading and writing and blogging again. I miss all of it a lot but just haven’t felt right about it. I don’t feel like I can talk about what’s been happening, it’s just too personal, but I hope I get swept up in the excitement of the rah-rah-read-a-thon. I really hope that happens. That would be great.

For my fellow read-a-thon participants I have put together some things that have helped in past read-a-thons.

• Instrumental Reading Music Stations
• Free Short Stories Available Online
• October Read-a-Thon Buttons & April Read-a-Thon Buttons

Now to start reading. I don’t really have a list, I’m just going to wing it and see what happens.

I’m up early to get this written up and am going to make a cup of tea before settling down with my first book, Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley.

Introductory Meme

I’m in St Louis, Missouri the gateway to the west.

Amity & Sorrow has gotten me interested enough to start reading again. I have read and reviewed a similar novel in the past, The Chosen One. Cults have always fascinated me, it will be interesting to read this perspective and get to see what happens after members leave.

I haven’t had a banana and karo sandwich with nutella in a long time, will be interesting to see if it tastes any good now that I’m an adult.

I’m a bit of a nerd. I’m really into speculative fiction, but especially epic fantasy in all forms and especially especially the Lord of the Rings. I’m going to be taking a one hour break in the middle of the day to log onto my favorite MMO Lord of the the Rings Online where I’m meeting up with my six person band to put on an in game Lord of the Rings tribute concert for my kinship. That requires several levels of nerd to get to that point, I know. We’re on the Nimrodel server and will be on the Bree stage across from the Prancing Pony at noon central time if you play the game and want to come out.

For the very first time I’m going to completely wing it, no reading list, no menu, no schedule. Just read what I want, when I want. It’s both liberating and a bit daunting. We’ll see how it works out.

Got a good chunk of the way into Amity & Sorrow and even participated in a few mini challenges. The book is really interesting and exciting. I’m glad I picked this as my first read of the day.

Book Spine Poetry Meme

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody / Over The Edge of The World / The Elegant Universe / Born in Blood and Fire

Nearly half way through Amity & Sorrow and it is turning out to be pretty good. Also had the concert and it went off without a hitch, a lot of people enjoyed it and had a good time.

Just wanted to let you all know I’m still here and I’m still reading.

I am still here and still reading, I’m nearing the end of Amity & Sorrow and hope to finish in the next hour or so. I’m on my third cup of tea but still going strong for now.

Mid-Event Survey

Definitely feeling sleepy, I’m afraid if I go down it will be down for the count, have to see how well I can stay up.

Nothing yet! I started a book today and it’s looking like I will finish it soon. So at least there will be one book done before the end of the read-a-thon.

The only one I’m reading is turning out well. I thought it was YA going into it, but it is definitely an adult read. The adults in it are acting like teenagers though. Ugh.

Don’t know about snacks but I have been enjoying my tea, straight black, some chai, and now a double shot english afternoon tea.

Would love to give a shout out to the awesome cheerleaders who have been keeping my spirits up: Stuff as Dreams are Made on, Aarluuk: Northern Stories and Worducopia.

Yay! I finished my first book of the read-a-thon Amity & Sorrow. I think I will read a book of short stories next and see where the rest of the evening takes me.

Casting Couch

I would have to go with the hilarious twins in False Colours by Georgette Heyer. You know. If her estate didn’t specifically ban her works from ever being made into a movie ever again.

As for who I would want to play the twins in this hilarious mix up. Um, hello? Who else? The twins that played Fred and George in the movies for the Harry Potter series! James and Oliver Phelps! Couldn’t you just picture them really shining and livening up a regency piece playing two very different twins with one very bird witted mother? It would be fantastic.

I didn’t manage to stay up too terribly late. I went to bed around 11-11:30PM and got up at 3AM to read a little more before going back to sleep again. I was happy with the progress I made finishing one book cover to cover and coming down to the wire with my second book, there is only about fifty pages left.

End of Event Meme

Hour 17 when I finally decided to lay in bed and read. That worked out about as expected.

I really enjoyed the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, a fantastic steampunk series based in the beginning of World War I (good for teenage boys too). I also loved Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher, highly recommended for fans of Tad Williams’ Otherland series as a very short, condensed alternative. Plus, now that they have been optioned for film, I always recommend the Graceling and Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogies.

Would love it if you guys went back to creating facebook events for the read-a-thon. Also wished you used some sort of url shortener (wordpress plugin style or similar) so that you could change the source links to mini challenges after they went out behind the scenes. Many of them 404ed throughout the day.

Everything was well thought out, set up nicely, and lots of organizational effort went into this to make it fun and great for everyone. I really appreciate the time and effort you guys put into this. Great job!

Only one, and quite a bit of a book of short stories as well.

Amity & Sorrow by Peggey Riley and Wasteland: Stories of the Apocalypse.

Amity & Sorrow without a doubt.

The short story “Killers” from Wasteland: Stories of the Apocalypse.

Very likely. I wish I could redesign the website. As a webdesigner the read-a-thon website just… bothers me. It’s good, it could be a lot worse, but it could be a whole lot better too.

As you might already know from my read-a-thon post yesterday I am very ready, and very excited for this read-a-thon! I have a mix of short stories, graphic novels and fast paced fiction to get me through the day. I also have a pinterest board set up dedicated to my favorite reading music (including genre stations for science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical and post apocalyptic) and another one set up dedicated to my favorite short stories (including one fantastic pod cast reading of a bayou fairy tale and a full cast radio drama for my favorite geek post apocalyptic story “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth”). Finally I also have all new buttons that I made for this read-a-thon. Not as good as the ones from eons back but they are pretty.

To start the day off I’m going to be reading Persepolis 2 and am planning on cycling through my short stories and fiction from there. I’m pretty excited. Hope you all have lots of fun reading today!

Introductory Meme

St Louis!

I’m really looking forward to starting The Knife of Never Letting Go.

My husband makes very awesome popcorn in a variety of flavors. He has promised to make up a batch or two today.

I have been blogging for nearly 15 years, and have been book blogging for nearly 8. I mainly blog about speculative fiction these days with a side dose of fairy tales. My tumblr is dedicated to deconstructing fairy tales.

This time I am a lot more structured and organized. I’m planning on rotating my reading a lot more to keep things fresh and I have created dedicated soundtracks to the day that I’m really enjoying listening to.

I am now about 50 pages into Persepolis 2 and hope to have it finished before the morning is out. I have finished my first cup of tea and am ready to dive back into reading! But first, a mini challenge.

Recreate the Cover

I have decided to recreate The Knife of Never Letting Go because that was easiest.

I have finally finished my first book of the read-a-thon, Persepolis 2. Next up is a short story to cleanse the palate and then diving in to The Knife of Never Letting Go. Also, lunch at some point.

I have not updated in hours! But I’m still reading! I managed to read another book Battle Angel Alita, Volume 1: Rusty Angel and two short stories and made a dent in The Knife of Never Letting Go. Then we had dinner guests and there was cooking, entertaining and cleaning to do before getting back to reading again. I thought it was past time I updated! I’m not sure if I’m going to make it the full 24 hours, but I’m on my third cup of tea and am ready to dive back into a short story so don’t put me down for the count just yet!

It’s that special time of year again. Time to drop everything and for 24 hours do nothing but read, read, read. What I want, whatever I want. I’m really looking forward to it! I’m also planning things out a lot more this year than I normally do. Here are my plans for the day:

For short stories I have Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, which I hope to be able to finish tomorrow, with Kisses From Hell waiting in the wings. For graphic novels I plan to finish reading the sequel to Persepolis and then dive into the manga series Battle Angel Alita. For fiction I was recently turned on to the idea of The Knife of Never Letting Go thanks to Aarti from Booklust. I also have some short stories related to The Forest of Hands and Teeth I would love to read before diving into the sequel The Dead Tossed Waves. I’m planning on starting with a sort of rigid rotation, short story, graphic novel and then 50 or so pages of straight fiction but I give myself permission to break those rules wantonly if a book drags me under.

For my fellow read-a-thon participants I have some treats that I’m hoping will help me get through the day that I thought I would share with you. First up is my pinterest board dedicated to some of my favorite short stories that the author (or publisher) has decided to share on their website. One of these even links to a full cast radio drama of the story if you find your eyes getting tired and want to hear a great post apocalyptic geek story “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.”

I also have a pinterest board dedicated to fantastic reading music as well, a must listen for late night read-a-thoning. Nothing like blood pumping music to keep you awake! I have set up pandora stations for science fiction, fantasy, romance, historical fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Finally, I have new buttons! These are not as super fantastic as the ones I made a few years back, but they are still pretty and I plan to use them, feel free to snag one for yourself if it takes your fancy.

I told myself I would make more big avatar size ones this year but it didn’t end up happening. I did address the concern about lack of male or unisex buttons though. Maybe next year I’ll focus more on avatar sizes, at least they are all uniform this time.

That’s it for this read-a-thon. I’m hoping to be on twitter a lot more than in years past because it turned out to be such an awesome experience last year. I also hope I will be able to make it the full 24 hours!

by Delia Sherman

[rating:5/5]

The great thing about new original fairy tales is the way they take old motifs, old themes and older tales and remix them in a new way to create a new story. “The Fiddler of Bayou Teche” by Delia Sherman combines several motifs of trickster tales along with myths and legends featuring musical instruments. The story that unfolds is a wonderful down to earth tale surrounding a trickster fiddler set in a deep south bayou.

The main character is a young albino girl named Cadence who lives in the swamp with the woman that adopted her, Tante Eulalie. Her mother serves the local loup-garou community as a medicine woman and plays the fiddle. Her mother cautions her against tricksters by sharing with her tales of warning. When her mother passes one winter Cadence ends up getting into trouble and being confronted by the very trickster her mother warned her against. Are the warnings and tales her mother armed her with enough to help protect her and allow her to survive?

There is a podcast of this fairy tale on the website Podcastle that features a fantastic reader, Elizabeth Green Musselman, and I really recommend hearing this fairy tale orally in this way almost more than reading it. It definitely adds to the experience.

[openbook booknumber=”159116835X”] [rating:4/5]

As if being dumped down into a completely fantastical and strange world that doesn’t speak her language or play by her rules wasn’t bad enough. Noriko faces bigger enemies in this volume and feels more powerless than ever. She can’t help her friends or fight the bad guys, all she can do is be herself. But will that prove to be enough?

It turns out being herself is more powerful than Noriko originally thought, but she isn’t the only one showing her true colors. Izark finally breaks down and reveals his true self to Noriko and the result ends up shocking them both.

This volume delivers two fantastic, worth the wait, reveals. One is Izark’s long kept secret that he now shares with Noriko and the other is a flashback to Izark’s childhood and his struggles right after he left home. Both were exciting to read about and I’m glad this twist has come along, it will be interesting to see where things go from here.

The author is still interrupting herself a bit but it’s becoming less and that’s good. Her side panels throughout the volume responding to fan mail are very annoying and keep coming in during key tense and emotional scenes in the book. That I could really do without.

[openbook booknumber=”9780345335708″][rating:5/5]

In the fourth book of the Belgariad, The Castle of Wizardry, all the set up from the series so far finally come to fruition and the stage is set for the final book. Picking up where the story left off Garion finds himself leading the small group as Belgarath is out of it after the last show down and Polgara is maintaining a shield to protect Errand. What follows is Garion not just making the journey into adult hood but also stepping up into a position of responsibility and authority. Garion finally grows up and it is wonderful to see.

As soon as somebody falls in love, all the wits seem to dribble out of the bottom of his head.”

The middle of the book does drag a bit as it gets bogged down in some very necessary but at least mostly peaceful politics. Stick with it to the last third and you will be rewarded.

This book features a major plot twist to set up the fifth and final book, and I won’t spoil it for you except to say that Garion is not the only one that does some major growing up, Ce’Nedra does as well. And, finally, we see some sparks start to really fly between our two annoying love birds.

We also finally get to journey through Drasnia and of course see the prince, Silk, in his element. The ending will leave you begging for the final book in the series.

I listened to this entire series on audio book and I just have to say that the reader for this series, Cameron Beierle, is phenomenal. Not only does he have a different, unique, and distinct voice for each of the characters but each kingdom has its own unique accent. The moment you hear him start to speak a line of dialogue you can tell what kingdom they are from immediately. He is an excellent reader and I can’t recommend his audio books enough.

[openbook booknumber=”9781595143976″][rating:3/5]

When young adults leave their hometown and go off to college it can feel like they have left the planet. All of a sudden they are in a whole new town with all new people, there are new rules of engagement and you are suddenly expected to act and think very differently. Worst of all many if not all their friends and family, most importantly the ever-present parents, are now gone and they are on their own. In Beth Revis’ science fiction debut Across the Universe she manages to capture all of this perfectly as we follow Amy and her journey aboard the spaceship Godspeed. Unfortunately it is captured too well and that along with a few other hiccups resulted in this book not turning out as well as I hoped it would.

Let me start this off on a positive note, Revis can write really, really detailed and realistic scenes. The book opens with Amy watching her parents be cryogenically frozen and then experience it herself. I have extreme needle phobia, it took forever to get through those pages. Even people who don’t have needle phobia squirm through that first chapter, it is intense and present and real and that kind of talent in a writer is extremely promising. She captures the small ship, the feeling of being trapped, the abandonment all very well and you experience it along with Amy and that is very powerful.

I am as silent as death. Do this: Go to your bedroom. Your nice, safe, warm bedroom that is not a glass coffin behind a morgue door. Lie down on your bed not made of ice. Stick your fingers in your ears. Do you hear that? The pulse of life from your heart, the slow in-and-out from your lungs? Even when you are silent, even when you block out all noise, your body is still a cacophony of life. Mine is not. It is the silence that drives me mad. The silence that drives the nightmares to me. Because what if I am dead? How can someone without a beating heart, without breathing lungs live like I do? I must be dead. And this is my greatest fear: After 301 years, when they pull my glass coffin from this morgue, and they let my body thaw like chicken meat on the kitchen counter, I will be just like I am now. I will spend all of eternity trapped in my dead body. There is nothing beyond this. I will be locked within myself forever. And I want to scream. I want to throw open my eyes wake up and not be alone with myself anymore, but I can’t. I can’t.”

Things go very wrong when Amy is woken up several decades too early. She discovers that the people awake on the ship have formed a dystopian society with more questions than answers. More frozen passengers are mysteriously being woken up and left to die in their melting ice. Amy is left with a mystery on her hands that she must solve before any more passengers are killed or before whoever tried to kill her comes back to finish the job. This is a mystery and a science fiction novel first and Revis gets the science right, she thinks through the ramifications of generations of humans living on the same small ship for 250 years and she even lays out the ship in a logical and smart way in respect to both the mystery and the science fiction.

That being said there were some problems though. The description is there, the unique plot ideas and premise is there, meanwhile the characterization, the plot pacing, the romance advertised heavily on the front cover was not. The mystery can be solved by the reader very early in the book. Many of the characters felt too true to trope and two-dimensional, like they weren’t even real people. The plot pacing was very, very slow. It took forever to get through the book and oftentimes the story seemed to be spinning its wheels. The romance between Amy and Elder seemed contrived and unrealistic, it lacked any sort of chemistry. Really the relationship took a back seat to the mystery that was front and center and that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you ignore the cover.

Focusing back on Amy, I have spoken before in reviews about YA authors that try so hard for the average teenage girl voice that they overcompensate. That happened here. Amy spent most of her time, on a space ship that she voluntarily signed up for, whining about being there. Yes, she was woken up early but most of the whine seemed to be about missing earth and sky and a boyfriend that had been dead for over 200 years by that point. She whined about missing her daddy and wanted to selfishly wake him up early even though the ship needed him at planet fall, whined about the people on the ship, and even got whiny and bratty with Eldest who had already told her he was willing to kick her off this ship since she threatened to disrupt things. It was annoying and I think more of teenagers than that. She was trapped, that I will admit. She was scared, that is fine. Her life was in danger, very much so. But address those concerns first, miss rain drops second.

I don’t really want to touch on the attempted rape scene except that it was horrible, unexpected, served next to no purpose and Amy was perfectly fine way too fast to be believable. Worst of all there was no ramifications for anyone, it was like it never happened. If you aren’t going to do the very thorny issue of attempted rape justice don’t include it in your book at all.

I’m really glad that a science fiction book for teens, and particularly teen girls, was not only written but then marketed so well. I do wish it lived up to that marketing a little better though. Dystopian fans will love the thought that went into the construction of the society in this book, science fiction fans will love the world building as far as the actual ship and the science behind many of the things that go on on-board are concerned. This is not really a romance though, there is only a dash of it and be ready for some very in-depth descriptions of some very horrifying scenes.

I received this book for free to review.